The president said the disclosure was intended to warn North Korea and Iran about the dangers of spreading nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Tuesday that last week’s disclosure of what senior American officials called evidence of a nearly completed nuclear reactor in Syria was intended to warn North Korea and Iran about the dangers of spreading nuclear weapons.

Mr. Bush also defended his administration’s decision to keep that evidence secret for more than seven months after Israeli bombers destroyed the Syrian building on Sept. 6.

The International Atomic Energy Agency last week criticized the United States for withholding information about the site and Israel for destroying it, saying both actions undermined efforts to verify whether it was a nuclear reactor being built with the assistance of North Korea.

Making the first remarks in public about the Israeli attack by any American official, Mr. Bush said that his administration maintained a cloak of secrecy to avoid the risk of further military conflict in the region, including possible Syrian retaliation against Israel. He said that risk of conflict “was reduced” now.

Mr. Bush did not explain why exactly the administration disclosed the information at this point, but the timing coincided with renewed efforts to persuade North Korea to abide by last year’s agreement to acknowledge all of its nuclear activities. The North Korean activities include what administration officials assert are a still undisclosed program to enrich uranium and the sale of nuclear technology to countries like Syria.

“We also wanted to advance certain policy objectives through the disclosures, and one would be to the North Koreans to make it abundantly clear that we, we may know more about you than you think,” Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference.

Senior officials have signaled that the administration may accept a less-than-full disclosure, allowing North Korea, for example, not to explain its nuclear cooperation with Syria in the kind of detail that American officials have now done.

In his remarks on Tuesday and at Camp David on April 19, the president appeared to back off such a compromise. He restated his demand that North Korea make “a complete disclosure” about its proliferation and enrichment activities.

Senior officials showed videos and photographs last week documenting what they said was evidence of North Korean aid in the design and construction of a plutonium reactor in eastern Syria.

The officials offered the most extensive information about the Israeli military operation, revealing that Israeli bombs had badly damaged the building, but that the Syrians worked feverishly for more than a month to dismantle the ruins to conceal evidence of nuclear activity. Israeli officials have never discussed the strike publicly.

Even as senior officials were making their case, a State Department delegation held a new round of talks with the North Koreans last week, but the talks failed to make progress in getting a declaration, which is now four months overdue.

Mr. Bush said that the disclosure of a covert Syrian reactor, which Syria has denied, should persuade other countries to support United Nations Security Council resolutions intended to keep Iran and other countries from developing nuclear arms.

“We have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world for that matter about just how destabilizing a nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East,” he said.

Mr. Bush also criticized the militant Islamic group Hamas as an obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but he passed up a chance to criticize former President Jimmy Carter, as his aides have, for meeting with Hamas leaders last week.

“Foreign policy and peace is undermined by Hamas in the Middle East,” he said when asked whether Mr. Carter’s meetings had undercut his efforts. “They’re the ones who are undermining peace. They’re the ones whose foreign policy objective is the destruction of Israel. They’re the ones who are trying to create enough violence to stop the advance of the two-party state solution.”

Asked about the political crisis in Zimbabwe, Mr. Bush sharply criticized President Robert Mugabe, saying he had “failed the country.”

He also made it clear that he was disappointed with other countries in the region for not doing more to support the opposition in Zimbabwe. That was an indirect but clear reference to South Africa, whose president, Thabo Mbeki, has called the dispute over last month’s elections an internal matter.

“It’s really incumbent upon the nations in the neighborhood to step up and lead,” Mr. Bush said, “and recognize that the will of the people must be respected and recognize that that will come about because they’re tired of failed leadership.”

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